Schoolboy who suffered two heart attacks after being given a chocolate by teacher

[AuntieMaggie]

I don't have children yet but this really made me cry here

I hope the poor boy recovers soon :(

my ds1 is allergic to cows milk, and all the teachers in his school have been fantastic - until this year. The current class teacher failed to familiarise herself with any information about my ds and when he declined the chocolate in the advent calendar, and said he was allergic to milk, she told him "don't be silly"

I'm a teacher and thankfully I'm aware of every child in school with an allergy and have done every bit of training (inc epipen admin) I can get my hands on. I also do supply and ask the children at the start of any class who has asthma, who's got an inhaler and if anyone has any allergies etc I should know about. It uses up the first five mins of a lesson but it could save an awful crisis imho.

The individual teacher has a duty of care, too. It goes with professional status.
Of course parents should keep the school fully informed, check for a supply protocol and make sure the school puts a decent one in place if it hasn't already. But every link in the chain - parents, school authority, teacher - has to take responsibility and not just rely on the others. This is a life-threatening condition we are talking about.

Snowjive what the hell are you talking about? You clearly have no idea how schools work. I didn't, as a class teacher, have acess to the information unless it was made available to me. I certainly under no circumstances had it available as a supply teacher.

The point - which you clearly missed - is that schools miss their duty of care because these things are not dealt with effectively. Putting pictures of children on a staffroom wall for several years is not an effective method of ensuring the safety of a child.

I didn't say I didn't know who the teachers were who could administer an epipen, I said that in the event I would need to find one - so if my nearest teacher was in classroom 436a along several corridors and a flight of stairs, I was supposed to find them in time was I? I would not in a million years be permitted to deal with the child at all and 'did not need' to be trained.

I think perhaps you need to stop doing work tonight as you don't seem able to read pretty basic English.

No, I never gave them food of any kind.

Take whatever spiteful little tone you like, Snowjive, if you want to ensure your kids are safe talk to the school about their actual policies, they are the ones who hold the information on a child, not supplies or class teachers.

MrsShrekTheThird, thank goodness for teachers like you!

Imagine the fun that Y9 would have with a supply teacher who asked them what allergies and medications they were on though...

~Thanks snow :)
obv I'm more aware of it because of my own dc having allergies.

Tiger, I think the awareness and protocols have improved massively in the last year or so, and particularly since Sam Linton's sad case. It has improved the training focus for schools as regards asthma and allergies, and it has made schools tighten up their systems for informing temporary staff. All to the good. Prior to this I agree that pictures could be out of date and teenagers change their appearance so quickly that it's difficult to keep up. Things much improved, in my area at least, these days.

Goblin - yes it can generate some interesting responses but nine times out of ten I get sensible answers. I teach PE so they generally realise it's for their own good.

PE teachers have ways of getting back at you that other teachers can't use.

MrsShrek I would hope they had, information-sharing within the public sector is shockingly poor and seriously, as a supply teacher asking about allergies amongst teens? Besides, some may not wish to disclose that and they should have that choice.

Schools are massively under pressure so often teachers get shoved into classrooms and expected to 'deal with' whatever comes up but the support can be minimal. I left teaching because really as an environment I could not accept how they operated, too idealist probably.

acknowledged, Tiger, I do say that if they'd rather not mention in front of their classmates then speak to me as early as convenient, and I make a point of 'mingling' and finding out names during warm up. As Goblin says, the situation I teach him is quite different from classroom teaching, which is useful :)

What idiot would bring nuts into a school though? Everyone knows that there are many nut free schools because of the prevalence of allergies. I would expect a teacher to be even more aware of this than the general public.

You can think she should have been more careful and that it is her fault and still feel sympathy for her. Unless she set out to hurt/kill him then she must be devastated by the outcome.

poor little boy.

Very sad for boy, family and teacher.

What I can't believe is that apparently all the pupils and supossedly the parents of pupils in the class know he has the allergy - so why take them in in the first place?

Most children with nut-related allergies in school are allergic to peanuts. So the teacher may not have been thinking nuts in general.
In the same way that many schools don't have a blanket ban on nuts, just peanuts.
Which are not actually nuts.
Doesn't alter the horrific outcome of course.

As a teacher I was on an epipen training and asked if a child without an epiepen had an allergic reaction was it better to do nothing or use another child's pen. The trainer refused to answer.

As a mother if I had a child with a nut allergy I think I would have shown them all the nutty sweets in quality street and roses boxes. It shouldn't be a surprise that the big purple one contains nuts.

Marco, I can't remember which sweets are which in quality street or roses, I have been eating them most of my life although only at Xmas time and I'm an adult with a very good memory. How the fuck do you expect a child to remember?!?!??

That's why we have the rule that you don't eat birthday sweets unless you are with your parent.
If you are not certain about a food and you have an allergy, you say no. We also ban food sharing and swapping at lunchtime.
Much younger children. By 11, those rules should be automatic for a child with an allergy, as long as there are no other additional needs.
How will he manage in unsupervised social situations if he doesn't manage his needs now?
He will need to be supervised all the time until he can keep himself safe.

morloth, I have sympathy for the teacher as you do for anyone who unintentionally causes suffering to others, but I have to say that most of my sympathy is reserved for the boy and for his mother, who had to watch him go through horrendous suffering.

Her son suffocated in front of her eyes: he had 2 heart attacks and stopped breathing. Even though he was resuscitated, there would have been the fear of brain damage. An anaphylactic reaction also carries the risk that it will recur 12 hours later (something to do with the body's feedback mechanisms), so even although the child's in hospital you don't know for 24 hours whether it's all going to get even worse. All because someone whom the mother and the boy had no choice but to trust let him down.

I've been in something like that mother's position. Fortunately my LO didn't suffer cardiac arrest, but he did stop breathing. It was the worst day of my life. It was 5 years ago and I still go cold when I think of it. This story has made me so angry.

marco, I agree with trixy. Your suggestion was facile.

Don't be wet, pixie. I simply agreed with trixy. Or do you think that she meant something different?!